Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1887-08-18
The Broken Pledge.

Under the above head an independent
paper o. great influence formally dis
cards PRESIDENT Cleveland. 1t says that
he, when a candidate IN 1884. received
the votes of thousands of Republicans
who did not like and would not support
Mr.. Blaine, not because these Republi-
cans were or meant to be Democrats,
but mainly on the ground of his pledges
in respect to Civil Service Reform.
But for these votes he would not have
been elected. He told the country in
substance, that, while he was Demo-
crat, he would, if elected, conduct the
Government in accordance with the
principles of this reform, and would not
remove incumbents from Federal offices
except for adequate causes not related
to mere partisan politics. The friends
of Civil Service Reform SO understood
him, and great many of them gave
him their support on this basis.
Mr.. George William Curtis, the Presi-
dent Of the National Civil Service
League, in his recent address at Newport
before the league, who earnestly sup
ported Mr.. Cleveland in 1884, raised the
question whether he, as a matter of fact,
had kept his Civil Service pledges. He
regretfully admits that he has not done
so and that his administrator cannot be
deemed "a Civil Service Administra-
ton. He presents an array Of figures
on this point that prove the truth of his
conclusion. He says that Of fifty-eight
thousand Federal oflicers-mainly post
masters, collectors, land officers and many
others about forty-eight thousand have
been removed and their places filled by
Democrats, and that this change has
involved change of all the subordnates
dependent on them. Trained officers
who had been ia the service for long
period, as assistant heads of bureaus,
chief clerks and heads of divisions. have
been displaced without cause, except
that Of party politics, and their places
have been filled by unframed Dem
ocratic successors. In a word, the
President in about two years and a half
has, according to the exhibit of Mr..
Curtis, come as near ga clean sweep"
as he could without giving up all pre-
tense to Civil Service Reform. The Dem
ocrats have clamored for the offices be-
cause they were Democrats, and the
President has, for the most part, done
their bidding, We are not disappointed,
since we have had no confidence in his
pledges and never believed that he
would do otherwise.
Should Mr.. Cleveland be re-nomi-
mated by the Democrats, as now seems
probable, it will hardly do, in the light
Of the facts presented by Mr.. Curtis. to
parade him before the country as
civil service reformer. We do not well
see how Mr. Curtis or any other honest
believer in this reform could give him
his support. He certainly deserves no
support on this ground The simple
truth is that his Administration has
been conducted mainly on the prln-
ciple that Ito the victors belong the
spoils." His words before election and
his acts afterward do not agree. The
latter tell much better than the former
what Mr.. Cleveland really is on this
subject. He is no better than the
Democratic party; and if he pretends
to be, in order to win Republican votes,
the pretense is = mere sham. We
earnestly hope that Republicans will
nominate candidate for the next
President, for whose record no apology
will need to be made, and who will
defeat Mr.. Cleveland, the sham re-
former, should he be the Democratic
candidate.